Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Dang, sorry for the long delay in posting a trail conditions report. We get busy with the SWNSki Kids program each week, and then there is a big time vacuum with keeping the grooming coordinated and stuff like that...not to mention the demands of a "regular" life with family, work, school stuff, etc.! Whew, winter gets hectic!

We were gone for the Alley Loop events in Crested Butte last week/weekend. The kids all did such a great job in their events, and it's very cool to see how they're becoming such accomplished and confident skiers. Their hard work and dedication, plus all of the parents who have so enthusiastically gotten involved, has really paid off. Our club is producing some future Nordic skiers, for sure!

OK, on to the trails and grooming report:

Our snow still looks great, with only some narrow/chunky stuff in the very sun-exposed areas like the front hill, and maybe one spot out near that "SunRock" section. Otherwise, it's a good base that is holding up well to the warmer/humid conditions of late. John Bernardin groomed last Friday, which kept things in shape for the weekend, so that set the trail up for hopefully some new snow.

New grooming hand, Casey, and I got up there last night for some new-groomer training, which is always a slow and laborious process, but he took to it well, having been a snowmobiler in Wisconsin. He ran our big Viking snomo with our lightest trail drag (LiteGroomer for training), while I ran the Ranger UTV with the G2 groomer with the tiller down. While the LiteGroomer didn't do a whole lot, we tinkered with it for quite a while to adjust it and get the razor bar down just right to get it to scarify the surface more. It paid off, and started to look a lot better by the time we were finishing up a long, slow pass. The G2 did a magnificent job, of course, but is a real chore to get through refrozen base for any machine. We have to stop periodically to cool things off, even when it's below freezing.

It was just snowing oh so lightly, but not really adding up just yet (hopefully that changes today). So, the skate/maneuvering lane is softer and smoother, but the classic tracks are not reset and were still icy and a bit washed out. They need to be reset, for sure, but we didn't want to waste time/energy/money by working on that so hard if it's just going to snow and get filled up. We'll get that done after it snows...at some point.

There are plans to regroom before the weekend, so we should have a great weekend of nice conditions.

Thanks for all of your support, and get out and enjoy these conditions! Looks like an active month of storms is in store for this February. It may be a bit warm, but hopefully, our snowpack will increase.